


to know the depth of it

by Kells



Series: gifts, requests, and other little bits [12]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Jurassic Park (Movies), Jurassic World (2015), Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dinosaurs, F/M, Female Steve Rogers, as in they have them not they are them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-04-05 15:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4185129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kells/pseuds/Kells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all his father's pet projects, Tony Stark's favourite has always been the one that sees his godparents training raptors mostly for the joy of it. Until, of course, SHIELD has to go and get involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not even trying to make excuses for this. I saw Jurassic World three times in six days, liked the raptors more than the human characters, and decided to borrow them for Steph and Bucky; for some reason this set-up only works for me if Tony is teenage instead of pushing 40. Title is from Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, which is my favourite-ever book about Scientific Inquiry and also my favourite book about dinosaurs written for people over the age of eight.

Tony Stark sighed with the full dramatic force of a sixteen-year-old not used to sharing the spotlight. There were way too many guests onsite today; even Natasha had been too busy entertaining the suits in the viewing gallery to do more than wave at him as he arrived.  

“I thought you told Dad no more visitors.”

His godmother, who had been poking holes in Stark egos longer than Tony had been alive, raised a hand in greeting without lowering the binoculars through which she’d been monitoring the expanse of grass on the other side of the paddock.

“My raptors bring all the boys to the yard,” she said dryly. Tony cringed so hard it almost gave him a cramp.

“What? No. I can’t believe you just- no. Where did you even hear that song? Please never say those words again.”

“I’ll let them have you if you fall in,” Stephanie warned; she _had_ been telling him not to rock her catwalk pretty much since it had been built. Tony pouted, not that Steph could see him.  

“You wouldn’t. Or, I mean, you would, I get that. But not in front of investors, right, and you’d let Bucky save me after.”

“I guess, if he really wanted to.”

Tony was _pretty_ sure the reluctance in her voice was put on. Before he could demand at least a hug if not some reassurance, Stephanie hit the button in front of them to raise the inner gate. A murmur of anticipation swept the viewing gallery, drawing matching glares from Natasha in the room and Stephanie across from it.

“I _hate_ visitors,” she muttered. Tony had just exchanged a grin with Clint Barton, who was sliding into position with his tranquilizer gun firmly in hand, when he made out the distinct roar of the bike he’d watched his father take apart and put together twice in the six months they'd had to wait to hear whether Steph was going to get her husband out of Afghanistan alive or in a wooden box.

“Wait, wait.”

Tony gripped the guard rail in front of them because he was pretty sure Steph would smack him if he tried to grab her arm while she was working. “Is he out there _with_ them?”

Suddenly, the general air of tension made a lot more sense. The official rule was no unsupervised interaction with mature predators inside their monitored enclosures and none at all outside of them, but then Steph’s raptors had been an exception before they even hatched. Tony wasn’t sure what kind of rule anyone could have come up with that might account for a guy deciding to go on some kind of raptor ride-along.

“He _has_ done this before, right?”

Clint eyed the busy gallery suspiciously.

“Usually it’s just us and Tasha.”

It was disconcerting in a very particular way to realise that both Clint and Stephanie were nervous.

“Shit,” Tony muttered, then had to duck Steph’s swat of rebuke. “Sorry, I meant ‘crap.’ Obviously.”

“Hush,” she ordered, glowering at the low wall of smartphones hovering at the ready. “I don’t need them any more distracted than they’re already going to be.”

Clint nodded with feeling, but winked when he caught Tony’s somewhat anxious look.

“Think your dad’ll fire me for shooting whichever idiot tries to take a photo with their flash on?”

The only time that had ever happened, all four juvenile raptors had tried to rush the gallery. The resulting collision had ended with two concussed dinosaurs, three drawn-out lawsuits, and a forty-second radio silence no one who’d been there would ever forget, during which they’d had no way to know for sure whether it was Bucky’s wrist monitor or his spine that had been permanently compromised by the unplanned crush.

“If anything he’ll promote you.”

He’d been hoping to make Steph smile, at least, but instead she scowled and jerked her head toward the lower landing.

“Clint,” she said in the very calm voice that Bucky always said was the most dangerous one she had. “I need you to get that man back inside right now, please.”

“Shit,” Clint muttered by way of acknowledgment. Tony couldn’t help but notice that no one tried to tell _him_ off, but he followed obediently when Steph jerked her head as if to say he should never have thought she was going to let him stay out in the open either. The guy on the landing was clearly military or recently ex-military, and practically salivating with excitement. Tony was still wondering what Clint would say to budge him when Natasha Romanova appeared behind the guy so quietly that he jumped about three inches when she spoke.

“I know I explained why we don’t invite guests outside, Mr. Rumlow.”

Tony was impressed in spite of himself: the vast majority of people without a death wish would have backed down, but this guy Rumlow just grinned.

“I’m not exactly a guest, sweetheart. I’m here with-“

Clint grabbed the intruder by the arm, dragging him roughly into the relative safety of the gallery.

“You’re not on the team, you don’t come outside. Is that clear enough?”

Tony wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Clint look so openly disdainful. “Do you think these girls care whether you took the ferry or a private jet?”  

Rumlow glared at Tony.

“You let this ki-“

He lost interest in the conversation right there in the middle of a one-syllable word. Tony turned to see why and found that the whole crowd of execs had surged forward as Stephanie, waiting at the centre of the upper bridge, raised her arm in anticipation of her brood. The motorcycle’s growl, much closer now, competed with the thundering of strong, clawed feet. Clint clapped Tony on the shoulder as his other hand twitched back towards his gun.

“I should-”

“Go,” Natasha agreed. “Sorry about that.”

“Hardly your fault,” Clint grumbled. “Keep an eye on baby-Stark, okay?”

He was gone the way they’d come before Tony could grumble that he was close to starting college and hardly a kid anymore, much less a baby. Natasha looked very tempted to lock the door, escape routes be damned, but she contented herself with smirking darkly at the dread and exhilaration already washing over Steph’s spell-bound audience.

“They’re bigger than they were last summer,” she observed conversationally, which was all the warning Tony got before four six-foot whirlwinds made mostly of teeth and claws came careening into view. Of course he’d seen them before- he’d known of them before they’d even been created, and had seen them at every stage from hatchling to almost-mature, but it never, never got old.

“Look at that,” Rumlow muttered, pressed against the glass like a six-year-old. “Real, live velociraptors.”

Tony smirked at the back of his head as Natasha rolled her eyes. As they understood it, Steph’s raptors- which were actually Abraham Erskine’s raptors, if it was a question of provenance rather than command structure- were actually some impossible hybrid of Deinonychus, Utahraptor, and African monitor lizard with a little bit of ostrich mixed in somewhere. They _were_ very fast, though, and had been very grabby pretty much from the day they’d first sunk tiny teeth into Bucky’s careful fingers, so almost everyone who was at all familiar with them tended to call them ‘raptors’ and let outsiders assume it was short for something specific.

Not that anyone at all was thinking too hard about genetics with four living, breathing dinosaurs coming at them at full speed.

“Hold,” Stephanie ordered, keeping her face still and her posture commanding as her outstretched hand clenched into a fist. The spectators seemed to breathe in as one as all four raptors skittered to a halt, stamping and snorting like some nightmarish combination of a cattle herd and a pod of lizard-people.

“Good.”

She gave them a moment to eye the gallery curiously, taking in all manner of new shapes neither familiar nor yet particularly interesting to them, before calling them to order. “On me, please.”

Four huge, scaly heads tilted her way in unison. 

“Awesome,” Tony breathed. Around him, several strangers voiced their fervent agreement. Steph, however, frowned as the smallest of her raptors turned away, restless and distracted.

“Ginger! What did I just say?”

The raptor’s head snapped back up. No match for Stephanie’s forbidding glare, she fell in line with only a gurgle of protest.

“That’s better.”

Stephanie raised her hand again, and the suits around Tony gave a gurgle of their own as eight sharp eyes zeroed in on her fist.

“Stay with me.”

They moved with her, tracking her path around their enclosure in their neat row until they’d navigated the individual gates that saw them through into separate overnight enclosures. “That’s good…and hold again, please.”

They froze on cue, nary a claw out of place as they waited for her reaction.

“Perfect,” Stephanie grinned at last. “Really well done, all of you.”

Tony let out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding, sharing a grin with Tasha at the gobsmacked silence in the gallery. The raptors leapt forward one by one as Steph called their names, offering praise and bloody morsels that were received with the unnerving snap of eager jaws. They remained on the alert, tracking Stephanie with their sharp, sharp eyes. One of the guests threw Natasha a nervous look.

“What are they waiting for?”

“They won’t disband until the pack is fully accounted for.”

At least three people edged closer, apparently trying to find a fifth dinosaur, but they realized their mistake as the four actual raptors began to cry out in a cacophony of happy recognition. Bucky Barnes, still in his riding gear, took the stairs in three quick bounds. Stephanie put both hands on his shoulders and smiled into their quick, totally PG kiss.

“You too. Well done, Bucky."

He grinned first at her and then at their terrifying adopted children.

“See? Gold stars all round. Relax, will you?”

They couldn’t possibly understand him, but they seemed to recognize the warm approval in his tone. Three of the four scattered at once, settling comfortably in their respective nests, but the one Steph had had to order back into line earlier shrieked and hopped about, obviously clamouring for attention. Several people muttered uneasily, but both Clint and Natasha were grinning by the time Bucky leaned over the railing like Steph would never have tolerated from anybody else.

“What, baby girl?”

“Amazing,” Rumlow muttered as the raptor screeched enthusiastically. “This is better than anything we were led to expect.”

Natasha’s smile slipped- her gaze turned considering, but she didn’t say a word. Tony would have been more interested in her reaction if he hadn't guessed what his godfather's pleading look meant.

“She’s too big,” he muttered. “Steph’s never gonna let him-”

“You're as bad as each other,” Stephanie sighed. “Be careful, all right?”

Bucky kissed her cheek and dashed down the stairs, but waited for her to follow before keying in his personal access codes.

“No,” someone gasped, catching on. “He’s not really going to-”

“Hold,” Stephanie ordered, and Ginger went still with her eyes on Steph. “Stay with me, now.”

The young adult’s whole body seemed to shiver with excitement as the gate slammed shut, but this time she kept her eyes on Stephanie.

“Good girl,” her trainer smiled. “Go on, then- where’s Bucky?”

He had crept up behind her, though whether it was even possible to surprise an adult raptor was something Tony couldn’t begin to guess. The spectators gave a collective shout of dismay as Ginger lunged for her handler, but Bucky was laughing as his favourite trainee knocked him backwards in her excitement.

“Cool it, little sister. I’m right here.”

The crowd watched, stunned into silence again, as the prehistoric creature pushed right up to her trainer and bumped her snout carefully against his cheek. Even Rumlow was left gaping as Bucky, still chuckling, leaned in and kissed the vicious face in front of his without the slightest trace of reluctance.

“Yes, yes. I love you too, you big baby.” 

“That’s how you know they imprint on Steph as chicks,” Clint muttered. When Tony raised his own clenched fist, it was to offer a congratulatory fist-bump rather than stop Steph's assistant where he stood.

“Amazing. My congratulations, Miss Romanova.”

This was a new voice, cool and crisp. Its owner was an older guy, immaculate in a three-piece suit that even Howard couldn’t have pulled off with such ease this close to the equator. Tony glanced at Natasha to find her already wearing her corporate face.

“Thank you, Mr. Pierce.”

“Alexander, please.”

Tony fought to conceal his surprise: Alexander Pierce was an old friend of Nick Fury’s, and his SHIELD clearance ran so high that even Peggy Carter spoke of him with obvious respect. He wondered what favour one of his father’s friends owed the man, and how Pierce had decided to cash it in in the form of a visit to Howard’s mostly secret research facility. 

“Alexander. I’ll let Stephanie know you enjoyed the demonstration.” 

Pierce was still watching Bucky brush easy, affectionate fingers along the pebbly neck of a raptor which would soon be taller than him. His wife watched through the bars, sharing in their peaceful moment but also making sure her husband made it out with all his limbs intact.

“I’d like to meet them if at all possible. Over dinner, maybe?”

Natasha knew as well as Tony did what Steph thought of having to entertain Howard's high-flying associates, but it was _Alexander Pierce_ asking. She smiled politely.

“I’m sure they'll be delighted.”

On the other side of the glass, Ginger snatched the tree-shrew Stephanie had just chucked her way out of the air. Bucky ducked out of the cage while she was distracted, claiming another kiss from his wife with no regard at all for the audience going pale at the sound of delicate bones cracking over his shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony watched with a sick kind of fascination as the raptors finished their small morning snack of basically a whole sheep each. He was standing in the far corner of Steph’s catwalk, close enough to the gallery to dash back in if Bucky said he had to but also far enough outside to hear every satisfied gulp. As he looked on, Ginger tossed her head back to swallow, creating a vibrant spray of blood drops that spread quickly before soaking into the earthen floor of the enclosure. Tony shuddered.

“You see this every day, and still let her get right in your face.” 

His godfather kept an affectionate eye on his girls even as he grinned.

“Only sometimes. They’d already killed a cow between them, she wasn’t going to eat again.”

That was hardly the only way you could get in trouble with a raptor, but it did make Tony feel a little better.

“Is that why Steph let you take your bike out with them like that?”

Bucky pulled a face.

“Can you not make it sound so much like I'm seven and she’s my mother?”

Tony laughed, at least until he had to stop to swallow nervously as Marlene dragged a whole leg of mutton away from the rest of the almost completely clean carcass as if to stash it for later in case she needed a late morning snack.

“Isn’t that what they think?”

“Of course not,” Steph answered for herself. Tony jumped- either he’d been so absorbed in the raptor feeding frenzy that he’d missed the creaking of the catwalk altogether, or his godmother had been taking ninja lessons from Natasha since the last time Tony had been to visit. “They'd be much more territorial if they thought he was a juvenile. They just think I’m his Alpha, same as theirs.”

“Well,” her husband said thoughtfully, one hand already on her waist. “Not _exactly_ the same.”

“You guys are gross,” Tony complained, rolling his eyes to register his protest; of course they kissed anyway. Tony decided the safest course was to ignore them, so he turned his attention back to the cage because the sight of Hedy and Greta picking their way through sheep’s entrails with the fussy claws of a pair of connoisseurs was much less disgusting than whatever travesty was going on next to him. He kept his eyes forward until Steph’s voice, suddenly sharp, distracted him again.

“Remember how Natasha promised to make the G-Men go away and leave us the hell alone if we just went to that dinner and talked civil for two hours?”

Tony and his godfather followed Steph’s resentful gaze to find Pierce and Rumlow watching them from the gallery. Natasha had her most reasonable face on, which Tony thought meant she was still hoping she could talk them into leaving without trying to talk to Steph again. Bucky sighed.

“Even Tasha Romanova can’t deliver all the time, I guess.”

Rumlow was heading for the door.

“This again,” Stephanie growled. Her radio crackled to life as Clint, listening in from his position by the gates below, voiced his own concern.

“You guys need me up there?”

They didn’t even have time to say they might before Rumlow pushed past Natasha and stormed their bridge again. Swaggering as he was, he made enough of a racket with his heavy combat boots to draw the ire of Ginger and her closest sibling. Hedy snarled, tensed to spring at the perceived threat.

“Easy,” Bucky told them, drawing all four pairs of reptilian eyes. “No one’s after your breakfast. It’s okay.”

They relaxed, recognizing both ‘okay’ and the reassuring tone Bucky often used when they got antsy.

“Get back inside,” Steph said tersely, speaking very quietly so she wouldn’t set her girls off too. Rumlow rolled his eyes extravagantly.

“What, you think I can’t handle this? Sweetheart, if you knew where all I’ve been-”

Tony stepped forward, partly because he was closest and partly because he thought Bucky might need both hands to keep Steph from shooting the asshole right there with her tranquiliser gun. Rumlow didn’t look impressed.

“Get out of my way, kid.”

It happened very quickly. Pierce’s bodyguard, or whatever he was, took another menacing step towards them. Tony grabbed him the way Clint had done the day before. Without Clint’s training or years of experience, though, he had no idea Rumlow would even think of fighting back by throwing him over the edge until he was on his back, dazed and winded, with four prehistoric killing machines suddenly watching him with interest.

“Don’t,” Bucky ordered in a low voice; Tony might have tried to say he hadn’t done anything if he could have made a sound. His godfather wasn’t talking to him, though, but to Clint. “We’re one short without Tasha.”

Their hard and fast rule for spending any time at all in the cage, even when the raptors had been tiny, was that there must always be as many tranqs on hand as there were mouths in range. With Tasha trapped behind the glass with Pierce, the other three couldn’t be sure the dinosaur they didn’t knock out right away wouldn’t turn on Tony in a rage when it wondered why the rest of its pack was down and out.

“I’m sorry,” Bucky said unexpectedly. “I love you.”

Before Tony could wonder whether his godfather was apologising for letting him get eaten by dinosaurs, Bucky had jumped over the railing and dropped into the cage with him, landing hard but staying on his feet on the other side of the bridge.

“Bucky!”

Steph’s horrified cry did the trick, in its way- all four raptors whipped round to see what was going on behind them. Tony, mostly too scared to think but knowing they didn’t have much time, stumbled unsteadily to his feet while the dinosaurs were occupied. 

“Hey, pretty ladies.” 

Somehow, he managed to sound totally at ease. Bucky grinned at the raptors like he’d been planning to drop in on them all day, and they were just trying out a new and different type of trick training. “You girls wanna walk with me for a minute?”

They’d learnt that command years ago. Bucky backed away, putting as much distance as he could between them and Tony and murmuring soft praise as the dinosaurs matched his easy pace. 

“That’s right. Stay calm for me, okay? There’s no need to rush it.”

Those weren’t the cues Steph used with the raptors at all, but Tony didn’t realise Bucky was talking to him rather than the dinosaurs until his godfather glanced past Greta to look right at him for a fraction of a second. Ginger chittered curiously; Bucky caught her eye and nodded encouragingly even as he kept up his instructions in the same gentle voice.

“We can do this. You’re gonna be fine. Get to the g-a-t-e. I’m right here.”

Tony nodded fractionally.

“Good. Take your time. Look how well your girls are doing, Steph.”

The dinosaurs raised their heads as soon as he said her name, gurgling in anticipation of their trainer’s reaction. Stephanie was white to the lips, but she smiled when it mattered. While the girls were distracted, Bucky caught Tony’s eye again and jerked his head meaningfully towards the gate. Clint had the emergency exit unlocked already; he beckoned Tony over with a nervous but bracing smile. That exit was small enough that the raptors couldn’t possibly follow- if Tony could just get there and through before they noticed him again, he’d be home free. He tried not to wonder what the hell Bucky was going to do, backed up against a concrete wall with four deadly predators between him and the gate. He was so close that he could almost breathe again when he trod on a discarded bone, a day or two old but still fresh enough to snap with a damp crunch that had at least one raptor’s head swiveling with interest. Bucky snapped his fingers, more than usually assertive as his mask of pure serenity slipped for a second. “Lene! Eyes on me, I said.”

She didn’t like that. The eldest- and largest- of the raptors darted forward aggressively, rumbling a warning low in her chest. Ginger growled right back, pushing in front of Bucky as if to say she’d side with him if she had to. The other two hissed in protest, not at all used to dissention in their ranks. All four stilled at the shrill scream of the whistle Stephanie only ever used as a pretty dire warning.  

“Back off, Marlene.”

That, Tony decided, was probably the look that had convinced Colonel Phillips to go back for Bucky even when all the reports had said it was impossible that his snipers could have survived the sandstorm they never, ever, talked about. “You hurt that boy, we’re never doing this again.”

He almost ruined everything by screaming when someone grabbed him, but it was only Clint- knowing the stand-off would only buy them so much time, he’d stepped right into the cage to get Tony out. That realization was enough to remind Tony how to move his own legs- as soon as they were behind the gate, Clint slammed it shut with as much force as he could muster. He dragged Tony backwards as soon as he had, keeping both arms around him and muttering a steady stream of meaningless assurances as all four raptors, over-stimulated and on edge by that point, rushed the gate in a storm of irritable sharp edges. They were just, _just_ out of reach of their claws, and not quite out of reach of their hot, rancid breath.

“You’re good,” Clint promised, easing Tony carefully away from the cage as the dinosaurs lost interest in pursuing them. “It’s over, they’re not getting out. You did damn well out there, Tony.”

“Thanks,” Tony managed, still overwhelmed by the fact that a guy he only kind of knew, whom he’d always thought of as Steph’s old army buddy rather than anyone who cared about him particularly, had just risked his life for Tony’s. That thought was all it took to set his heart hammering again. Tony screwed his eyes shut, telling himself firmly that Steph would have shot all four raptors _herself_ if they’d tried anything but too damn scared to look up and find out that he was wrong. “Where’s Bucky?”

He hadn’t come after them, that much he knew. Clint pulled Tony into a rough, comforting hug.

“He’s fine too. Steph’s got him, up on the bridge.”

That part, Clint explained while Tony re-learned how to breathe, they _had_ actually planned for; Stephanie Barnes hadn’t got her husband out of a war zone practically against the army’s wishes only to let him voluntarily lock himself in with any kind of predator without a detailed, well-drilled plan for when the gates jammed. Daring to peek over Clint’s shoulder now that he knew all was well, Tony saw the rope ladder she’d dropped from the bridge. It still hung in place, the rungs that had been within the raptors’ reach already shredded completely as Ginger tried to understand what Bucky had done to get from inside the training enclosure to on top of it while the raptors’ backs had been turned. Above their heads, Stephanie had her husband wrapped in an embrace that was at least part headlock. Tony smiled shakily at the sight.

“She’s never gonna let go’f him now,” he muttered. Clint’s answering smirk wasn’t that much more convincing.

“’s not like he minds, is it? C’mon, let’s go make sure Tasha doesn’t kill that walking screw-up before your dad’s lawyers get their pound of-”

He cut himself off when Tony flinched. In the enclosure, Marlene nosed half-heartedly at the carcass she had picked bare. “I’m sorry! That metaphor sucks. Forget I said anything. Let’s go make sure Tasha doesn’t kill that walking screw-up before Steph punches him in the face.”

That did sound good, Tony thought.

“Can I do it, if she doesn’t want to?”

Clint grinned with more confidence.

“I’m pretty sure she wants to. Maybe we can all take a turn or two.”

Tony nodded.

“Everyone who had to go in there gets double chances, though, right?”

Clint looked like he wasn’t sure they were allowed to joke about that yet, but when he saw that his charge wasn’t on the point of crying or screaming or anything he nodded agreeably, slinging an arm around Tony with comradely warmth.

“Sure, kid. Whatever you say.”

**Author's Note:**

> Steph's raptors are called Greta, Lene, Hedy and Ginger because she let Howard and Bucky name them, and they decided to go with a Glamourous Women from Long Ago theme. Because, you know, raptors. Ginger is not as much of a femme fatale as the others, but she was an adorable, high-energy Miss Rogers whose onscreen personalities mostly did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted so it's maybe not that surprising that Bucky likes her lots.


End file.
